Circus Freak
by BlueSpines
Summary: Loki/OC. This story follows 19 year old Lily. Telekinetic, she brushes with death and interacts with the Avengers team. Graphic Violence and Sexually Explicit in later chapters. *IN PROGRESS*
1. Taken

_The story takes place in Genoa, Italy, on January 8__th__, 1943. It follows a 19 year old girl named Lithium Summers. She was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, USA; she ran away from an abusive home at 16 years old and joined a travelling circus owned by Anton Trivett. Her stage name is Lily. She has long brown hair, is petite and 5'7'' tall._

Lily began taking out her curlers at 5pm, the show started at seven so she had time enough to relax and prepare slowly. Her brown locks bounced up into ringlets and accented her dainty face. She applied eyeliner in a curved line on the lid. She dressed into her exquisite outfit, white tights, white corset, white tutu, just as the patrons began to arrive. She was ready at 6:50 and the stage-hands were running about the rooms, making sure everyone was ready to perform. Tonight she would perform her trapeze act first and later her contortionist act. The night went by like any other, people cheering and looking in awe at the brightly colored outfits and props. She was too lost in her thoughts to pay attention to the audience.

It was almost midnight when the show ended. She was still in costume and leaning on a rafter, watching the tents get disassembled.

"Excuse me, Lily, Anton would like to see you." A stage-hand said.

She found her way to his trailer quickly and tapped on the door.

"Come in, come in, mademoiselle!" Anton spat.

She pulled open the door, and it let out a small whine. She looked down to make sure she wouldn't trip on the step like last time; the floor board creaked as she stepped up into the shoddy trailer. She raised her eyes and met his plump face. She sat down in front of him and noticed a large stack of francs sitting on his desk. He hadn't said a thing since she sat down, he looked nervous and a small layer of sweat clung to his forehead. She opened her mouth to speak and heard a small creaking behind her. She felt a presence approach and the last thing she remembered was a cloth covering her mouth, it smelled sweet and everything went black.


	2. Experiment

Armin Zola stood in an open room with a clipboard that was packed with papers while Hydra assistants wheeled in 20 new subjects, all were sedated. Zola had asked for fit, young women to work with in his newest experiment. He was attempting to bond the Tesseract's energy into the human body, to create his own breed of super-soldiers. He was always fascinated with Dr. Erskine's research and wanted to clone its results. He had explained to Schmidt that through his research the female's extra chromosome would aid in the bonding process and he would use the successful female subject as a stepping stone to bonding the Tesseract energy with all soldiers of the Hydra army. Schmidt was pleased at the idea and let Zola carry on with his experiment.

The 20 new subjects were prepped up to begin assessments. A mess of tubes and wires littered the bodies of the women. He glanced at them all and would rather not know their names. He had carefully constructed a list of tests to weed out the undesirables. He had once called it rehearsal.

There were ten tests the subjects had to survive before moving on as prime, the subject that would be worthy of bonding with the Tesseract's energy. The ten tests would span over ten days and he was eager to begin.

Test 10- one subject deceased, nineteen remaining

Test 9- all passed

Test 8- two subjects deceased, seventeen remaining

Test 7- three subjects deceased, fourteen remaining

Test 6- two subjects deceased, twelve remaining

Test 5- five subjects deceased, seven remaining

Test 4- four subjects deceased, three remaining

Test 3- all passed

Test 2- one subject deceased, two remaining

Prime Test- one subject deceased, one remaining

Zola was brimming with excitement; he rushed to his communicator to try to call Schmidt to the lab. He would be pleased that a subject had finally survived all 20 of the tests and Zola thought he would want to witness the Alpha Test. Schmidt answered with a fussed voice, "What do you want doctor?"

"Ah, Schmidt, I am glad you answered" said Zola.

"Yes, I assume this has to do with your bonding experiment?"

"Yes sir, I am at Alpha stage with one living subject."

"I see after 7 trials this experiment is finally moving forward, what are the odds that this one will survive this Alpha Test?" Schmidt hissed.

"Uh, it is hard to predict, but I feel promise. If she does survive the bond with the Tesseract energy I shall begin on bonding with male subjects, and soon after the entire Hydra army." Zola stuttered.

Schmidt made an agreeable huff and said, annoyed, "I'll be there promptly"

The line quickly went dead and Zola sighed.


	3. Alpha

Today was the day to commence the Alpha Test. Once he was done with his primary rounds of the facility, he moved to preparing the last living subject for the final test. Zola was optimistic about the odds that one was still alive, but felt that it was his last chance at this experiment; Schmidt grew impatient and wanted results.

The remaining woman was petite and he wondered how she had survived this far, he prayed that she had not felt the horrors of the previous tests. He shrugged off the guilt of his actions as soon as they crept in, there would be no room for distractions.

The woman was dressed in a smock like outfit and had been strapped to a labyrinth of a machine; she was ready for the Alpha Test. Zola was waiting for Schmidt to arrive and was beginning to grow impatient at Schmidt's lacking punctuality. Speak of the devil and he shall appear; Schmidt burst through the doors, Tesseract in a strong briefcase. They both stood in a room separate from the machine and the girl; they looked through a thick screen of glass, there to hopefully protect them, or just Zola, if something went wrong.

Once the Hydra leader was settled in and the Tesseract in place, Zola stated "This is the first subject to survive this far, and I know you grow impatient for results and I… I have a lot of faith that she will survive the bonding."

Schmidt looked unimpressed and sneered, "If she does not survive I want you to forget of your idle fantasies and jealousy of Dr. Erskine. If you put your concentration to weapons I would be much further along in my conquest."

"Yes, sir" Zola acknowledged.

The test would commence once Zola pressed the button. His hand shook slightly over the glowing red orb before he besieged it. The countdown began, and Zola begged that the subject would survive.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

_Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep_

The blue aura raced through the equipment, the tubes, the wires, the metal, the flesh. The Tesseract molded into the contraption, letting off a low hum and the woman's body began to glow a bright blue. Zola stared intently at the women's vital signs, the anticipation gnawing at his very being. Schmidt stared callously at the girl, obviously not impressed.

The vitals of the woman began to rise at an unsettling pace; Zola began to dig his hands into the table. The woman's body began to blur, the machine shaking, the hum getting louder, the table vibrating, everything burning a bright blue, a high pitched scream pierced the air. The woman awoke covered in a blue semblance, eyes bulging, threatening to pop out, and her entire body seeming to explode. Her heart pulsed like staccato, like rapid gun fire. Her body felt like it was melting, burning, it was _raw_. She felt as if every inch of her body was being ripped apart and smashed together. She was screaming but didn't hear it; all she heard was that malevolent hum. It was like a never ending nightmare, and then suddenly everything cut to black.

Zola's face dropped as she flat-lined. The room went back to its dull contrast and the Tesseract reverted to its normal glow. He glued his eyes to his feet, feeling that disappointed glare growing beside him.

"As I said Doctor: a waste of time." Schmidt indicated.

"Yes, sir." Zola hesitantly agreed.

Schmidt turned on head and walked out silently after collecting the Tesseract, presumably to transport it to the weapons wing. Zola let out a long sigh and felt the weight of his failure. After collecting his thoughts, he called a Hydra member to discard of the failed experiment; he watched as she was wheeled out of the room. Her body was intact, but her appearance had changed drastically.


	4. Disconnected and Deliverance

She came back to awareness at an unknown time; her thoughts were racing around in the complete darkness of her mind.

_Who am I? Where am I? What happened?_

Her thoughts jumbled and scattered. The last thing that she remembered tainted her mind, a searing pain that she would rather not dwell on.

She slowly put everything together, curlers, performance, the tents, Anton, the sweet smell, the blue glow, the humming, the pain and now. She could feel her body but could not move a muscle. She could hear footsteps and breathing. She could tell that she was lying on something cold, metal perhaps. She felt the turning of wheels and the small bumps as it was moving.

She felt so disconnected, so alone. Her body felt silent and still, no blood moving, no warmth, and no beating in her chest. She couldn't touch her body, it felt cold and far away, slowly slipping from her reach. She felt as if she were fading away; lost to her thoughts and fears. _Is this death?_

The Hydra member assigned to dispose of her body reached the end of a long, dark hallway. He opened a shaft and pushed the body through, hearing it tumble down the chute to the tunnels below. Behind his helmet he was smiling.

She felt herself falling, she was not ready to die, and she refused to let it end like this. The falling ended with a splash, her body stunned by freezing water, eloped by it. She tried desperately to move, to breathe, to open her eyes, anything. She wanted to reach into her body and grasp her heart, to order it to beat again; she wanted to feel warm and alive, she wanted to see the sky and be able to move her toes. All the unnoticed things in life seemed like a gift to her. Her body slowly sinking deeper into the water.

She felt her mind stretch beyond its known limits, gravely wanting to bring her body back to life before her thoughts faded away from reality. She felt strength and power billowing from her mind as she snapped it back, directed at her chest.

Over, and over she did this. Frenzied and determined.

…

…

…

_thump_

_thump_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_thump_

_thump_

_…_

___…_

_thump_

_thump_

She felt herself molding back to her body, felt the warm tingling of blood rushing through her veins. She felt the dull pounding in her chest return and a surge of relief washed over her. Her mind finally in control of her arms and legs. She thrashed them in the water, trying to reach the surface for air, her lungs burning and begging for it.

She surfaced and gasped at the sky. It was gray and cold but she had never felt so satisfied to breathe. The air was crisp and it smelled like rain. Her muscles ached as she peddled to the nearest shore; the waves tried to pull her under but also aided in pushing her toward her destination. She swam for what seemed like an hour but when her bare feet touched the sand she nearly screamed in deliverance.

She looked down at her feet and felt the sand in between her toes. She stumbled to the edge of the sand and the trees; her smock heavily soaked with water, she collapsed under the weight of it. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the sky; she took a long hard inhale through her nose and sighed out hard and vocal. Exhausted but proud of herself, she rested her eyes falling into a well deserved slumber.


	5. Power

She awoke feeling well-rested, stretching her muscles slightly before sitting up, feeling the cold sand churn beneath her. Her hair clung to her face and neck, she pulled it back and it was hard from the dried sand. It was a cold day, afternoon perhaps, and a light mist permeated the air. There was the low sound of crashing waves in front of her, while a light wind passed through the trees.

She pulled her knees into her chest and attempted to brush out her stiff hair. As she glanced at her hand she froze. A stray lock of hair lay betwixt her fingers. Taking a few seconds to realize what she was seeing, that it was blue; the color blue that she recalled from the pain she had felt on that machine. She stared at it in disbelief. Her hands grabbed more locks of hair and her eyes began to trace its shade. She could feel the heat beneath the derma of her skin as her face became warm, she was blushing.

"I hope this isn't permanent." she whispered.

She began to feel a small ball of fear growing in her stomach as she thought back on the experiment.

_Would they be looking for me? They thought I was dead… _she shuttered at her thoughts as she began to remember what had happened in the Hydra base.

She decided that she should get as far away from this place as possible, but she didn't even know where she was.

She carefully stood up, bracing for her muscled to scream at her from soreness. But much to her surprise, they felt fine, stronger even. She hopelessly brushed of the bits of sand that clung to her smock and began to walk into the forest. She was dreading trekking into the woods without shoes but she had to find a road or a town to get her someplace safe.

…

It was reaching nightfall before she stumbled onto a road; she shortly followed it before reaching a small town. Even with her falling and tripping countless times through the forest, she remained improbably unscathed.

She stalked the border of the town, eying houses and seeing the occasional person walking around. The sun had passed beyond the rim of the horizon and the streets were casually lit by streetlamps. She patiently searched for a house that had no occupants or a car that she could 'borrow'. She knew that if someone saw her they would wig-out over her Tesseract colored hair.

She heard a muffled conversation coming from an alley-way.

"jak się masz?"

"ahhhh, jestem dobry."

She didn't recognize the language nor could she read any of the street signs. Shrugging that off, she soon found a house that was dark and silent, it was a small house and there was a shoddy barn close to it. She carefully inspected the inside of the house and concluded that it was empty; _perhaps the homeowners were drafted for the war. _She contemplated.

After investigating the doors and windows, she found a small window that was unlocked, it opened about a foot wide and, being a contortionist, she slipped in easily. Keeping all nights off and as quiet as she could possibly be, she began slinking in and out of the rooms, searching for clothes and other useful items. She packed a small bag full of stolen clothes and found a set of keys, hopefully to a vehicle, (though she had never driven in her life.) and a lockbox that had some odd looking money inside.

Keeping a watchful eye out for anybody looking to enter the house, she relaxed a bit and found her way to the dark bathroom. She peeled off her sand covered smock and was desperate for a shower, sand still clinging to all parts of her body. Not wanting to make any more noise than she had too, she settled for a small washcloth and a quietly dripping sink, the room was nearly pitch black and she had to feel around for towels. She rinsed her hair out slowly and quietly. She put on some of the clothes she had found, all of them dreadfully too big and baggy. She had settled for baggy pants, a button up shirt, calf-high boots, and a long wool coat.

Ready to move on she made her way to a window to check the perimeter. She saw her reflection in the dusty window and gasped at what shone back; her face seemed paler, smoother and lighter, her irises were magnetized like a porcelain doll, threatening to cover the sclera completely. Her irises were brighter than her hair, seeming to glow that blue aura she would never forget. Looking at her hair she observed it was the same length it had always been kept at, mid-back, it had its slight natural curl, and the blue color was stunning, it was unnatural but beautiful. The reflection of her changed appearance made her completely breathless, and afraid. She rummaged through the house and forced on a wool hat, concealing all of her soft blue hair. She found some old glasses and popped the lenses out to disguise her enlarged irises. Once satisfied with her façade she went back to the task at hand.

She focused on the streets, they were vacant and quiet. She slipped the bag on her back and made her way through the back door. Scanning the area, trying to locate the car that paired with the keys, and her eyes met the shoddy barn. Gliding her way inside she sighed with relief.

_No more walking. _She thought delightedly.

It was a 1935 Chevrolet truck, it was rusted and looked like it would fall apart but a bubble of optimism said it would run. She threw the bag inside, climbed into the seat and, forgetting her commandment of being as quiet as possible, she pushed the key in its slot and turned it hard. The truck roared to life, sputtering and shaking. She remembered her father trying to teach her how to shift the clutch and press the gas when she was fourteen, all those skill rushing back to her even though she had never practiced them.

She somewhat panicked when she realized how much noise that she was making and quickly drove out of the town. The headlights were dull and barely helping her see but she was glad that she didn't have to walk.

…

After driving for a few days she concluded that she had been in some part of north Poland. She passed many army trucks and saw countless soldiers, she was nervous whenever she saw them but they rarely bothered her. After those first few days of driving she realized that she hadn't gotten tired or slept since her slumber on the Polish beach; she also discovered that she never got hungry or thirsty but always felt energized and aware, and any scrapes or cuts she received healed almost immediately (though she could still feel the pain).

She drove on farming roads to avoid the downtrodden towns and strict border patrols, and avoiding anything German related, like the war. Still surprised that the truck had lasted this long, finding places to buy gas was growing difficult and very expensive but she had quickly developed a silver tongue and deft hands. She was on route to Bordeaux, France, hoping to set sail to America. The war was weighing heavy on Europe and she also wanted to avoid any conflict related to the Hydra base that took her.

It took her a week to reach west France and the rusted truck was threatening to fall apart from under her. Along the way to France, she had collected quite a bit of money, thanks to her deft hands. Once she had reached the city she was determined to buy clothes that actually fit her and find a ship that was to set sail. She abandoned the rusted truck and began her search.

Strolling down the streets she succeeded in buying nothing that would draw attention to her, but aid her in blending in. She purchased a few plain dresses, small heels, a sturdy pea coat, and a few hats that would conceal her unnatural hair. Like many parts of Europe, the architecture was jaw-dropping. She took in the views and acted like a tourist.

Finding a ship that was America bound was fairly easy, the boat that was set to voyage to America departed the Bay of Biscay tomorrow at 6am. With time to spare she wandered the fair streets, passing by the townhouses and small shops. The smell of crepes and breads permeated the air as she passed by adorned restaurants, small lights scattering the archways. She wandered into a small hole in the wall bar to pass time; it was musty, loud, and was packed full of people, mostly soldiers. She weaved her way to the counter, accidentally bumping into many people on the way.

"I'll have a shot of whiskey, please." She exclaimed to the bartender, nearly yelling over the noise.

"I'll pay!" a tall man shouted, obviously intoxicated. Stumbling, he barely caught the counter as he made his way beside her.

"I appreciate the offer, but I can pay for my own drink." Lily stated.

"Haven't I… seen you someplace before?" The man stammered, eyes blinking far too often.

"Yes, that's why I don't go there anymore. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd rather sit along." Lily spoke hard, avoiding looking at him as she drank, the whiskey burning its way down her throat. She gestured for another and he began to stumble for words.

"No, no, yes, I saw you at a performance… in Italy! So, are you going… uh… doing another?" He grinned as he spoke, his body swaying back and forth.

She looked over at him, a mixture of shock and confusion on her face. "What do you mean?" She asked as she took another shot.

"That... thing?" He pointed at a poster barely clinging to the wall. It was the circus she had been in, and she quickly realized they were in town. Her face went red, either with embarrassment or anger. She paid for her drinks and headed for the door.

"Geez, you can reeeeeally take your liquor." The man slurred behind her; as she walked away she heard yelling and crashing as the man passed out.

_And you cannot. _She thought as she made her way to the street.

She had not thought of confronting Anton before leaving Europe but now that she knew he was close, she had to. She had to know who had taken her and if he had anything to do with it.

She found where the circus was performing and arrived about half-way through the acts. She settled on watching the remaining half before confronting Anton. She was nervous and afraid at what she would find out, trying to put together what she would say and ask him when the time came. She turned her attention to the show, hoping to calm her mind. She noticed that they had not replaced her act but rather elongated the others to make up for the extra time.

Once the show was over, she made her way through the crowd and behind the performing tents. She easily spotted Anton's shoddy trailer. There was a dull light shining through the curtains and she slowly approached the door. She recalled the last time she had knocked on his door and it was not pleasant. Feeling the déjà vu, she rapped on the door.

"Fichu, foudroye, putain." She heard mumbled, along with rustling papers and unknown commotion coming from inside the trailer.

"Yes? Who is it?" She heard Anton spit.

She was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say.

"Uh… yes. I have a business proposal." She bargained. Her face was unsure while she bit her bottom lip.

"Ah… Come in, come in!" He grunted.

She pulled open the door, and it let out a small whine. The floor board creaked as she stepped up into the shoddy trailer. It smelled like mothballs and it was more than unorganized. She raised her eyes and met his plump face. She felt nostalgic slam into her with a hint of fear. She didn't sit down and faced her back toward a wall. He stared at her, open mouthed and wide eyed.

_Does he recognize me?_

She didn't move, she didn't speak, she waited for him to make a move; all of her plans and prepared questions forgotten in an instant. Anger began to boil inside of her as he cleared his throat.

"Euh… you… mademoiselle Lily. I thought you were…" he trailed off, looking her up and down in disbelief.

Her hands balled up at her sides. "Thought I was what, dead? What did you do?"

"I… euh…" he stammered, unable to complete his sentence. She pulled off her glasses and slammed her hands on his desk, staring into his eyes. "Tell me." She whispered, anger slowly growing in her stomach.

Fear was apparent on his face. "They told me they wouldn't hurt you! They said they worked for the police. They said they were going to bring you home, to your family." he explained.

Her nails began to dig into the desk as her anger grew. "What about the francs, Anton. Police don't do charity."

The color in his face drained and he searched for an excuse. Sweat clung to his face and dripped down his neck. Knowing he was caught in his lie he pulled open a drawer and grabbed a suppressed gun.

"I'm sorry Lithuim, you don't give me a choice. I cannot go to jail." he sobbed. He stood, raised his arm and pointed the gun at her head.

"Reposer en paix." he stated, closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

…*…

It was silent and still in the trailer and all that could be heard was Anton's nervous breathing and a low hum. He lowered the gun and slowly opened his eyes.

"Dieu ait pitié." was the last thing he said, his breath became labored and his face was dripping with fear and sweat.

Lithium Summers stood in front of him. She was unharmed and unafraid. Her face contorted with anger, pure rage. She felt betrayed and violated. She wanted him to feel the pain that she had felt, the pain that he had consented. Every cell in her body wanted him to be ripped apart, limb by limb. Her mind was in frenzy; she loathed this man and wanted him to know true misery. She wanted him to scream, to writhe in pain.

Her eyes began to glow a blue that pierced into Anton's very soul. She emitted waves of power and hate, her skin beginning to glow as well. A low hum proceeded to fill the air as she raised her palms toward him. She felt her mind begin to expand and she was bursting with energy. Her mind grabbed ahold of him and ripped him apart. Reveling in the pleasure it brought her to see him disappear beneath her. His blood scattered every surface in front of her and the sight sated her rage. Every cell of his body reduced to mush and ash. The hum faded and her eyes and skin softened. She looked down at her work and screamed. Not in anger but in shame.

"What have I done?" she breathed.

She ran, ran away from the horrors that she had just witnessed. That she had committed. She reached her hostel room and sobbed. She prayed that she could leave this cursed country faster.


	6. Alias

_(Author note: I am in college right now so it takes me a while to type these up and actually get around to uploading them. So, be patient or come back to read them in a few months. Thanks :] )_

_~69 years later~_

Lithium was 88 years old. Many years ago she was kidnapped, tortured, and killed; but she survived. She forced herself to live; she was far too young to die that day in the water. She held onto life with a strong grip and never let go; and now she knew she made the right choice. She looked back at all that she had learned the last 69 years; she learned how to control her unnatural powers, she forgave her family and herself, she went to college and experienced a great deal of other things. The war had ended a long time ago and people moved on; people improved and created wondrous things, buildings, technology, medicine, all sorts of advances. Lithium was there to see it all unfold; and she had not aged a day since the moment she died.

Currently, Lithium worked at the New York University of Arts and Science. She lived under the alias of Selene Kyloni (made so by fraudulent immigration paperwork). She has only lived under her birth name, the identity she gave herself when first arriving to the US (a name that says she should look 88 years old), and her new current identity.

The past 69 years has been occupied with research and school. Lithium wanted to find out how she survived and how she could have the powers she possessed. She found out little about her nature through her studies and her only clue to what had happened was the Tesseract.

Lithium snapped out of her daydreaming when she smelt her rice burning. She often found herself thinking about what she was but lately she was on edge more so than usual. She barely saved her rice from turning charcoal and she went about her daily routine. True, she didn't require food, water or sleep; that didn't mean she didn't enjoy them.

Once she ate what little she saved, she began to put on her 'costume' so she called it. She had to hid the fact that she was freakishly pale, had bright blue hair, and glowing blue eyes! It was ridiculous! She probably kept a few companies afloat with how much product she bought! But today was different; she was putting on more than a disguise today.

Lately, she had been digging around in some classified government archives to find information on the Tesseract and she got a lead. Howard Stark. The file didn't reveal much only that Howard retrieved a powerful blue cube from the Arctic Ocean in late 1943; the same year Lithium fused with the Tesseract.

This file was the first strong lead that she had found. One problem, Howard Stark was dead. This didn't stop Lithium though. Howard had a son and his son could still have information on the Tesseract stored on his computer.

She had a plan- she was going to go to a public place to use public wifi, then she would hack into Tony Starks files and download any information linked to the Tesseract. This was risky, very risky. She had to plan for every outcome, she knew for sure that Tony's files would be encrypted and he would surely catch her hack. It was a risk she was willing, no, had to take.

She was going to go to the New York public library, using a stolen laptop (modded by herself), hack and download whatever she could onto a flash drive, destroy the laptop, and disappear into the lunch-time crowd. Sounds flawless, right?

_~~~Stark Tower, one hour later~~~_

Tony sat on the top floor of the Stark Tower, skimming a few e-mails on his tablet and sipping a scotch.

BEEP BEEP "Sir, there seems to be a hacker in the system." said Jarvis.

Stark looked up from his tablet with a mixture of confusion and awe on his face. "Oh really?" he said.

"Yes sir, they seem to have gotten through two firewalls undetected and are currently 78% through the final firewall." said Jarvis.

"Set a trace and put it onscreen." said Tony, slight disbelief still present in his voice.

"On it." said Jarvis.

A world map was put on the large screen overlooking the main room. The trace was already narrowing the location of the hacker when Jarvis announced, "The hacker made it through the final firewall and is currently downloading files H4567-H4967. I am doing all that I can to prevent the download but they are spamming my processor."

"Well, Jarvis, you obviously haven't been to enough porn sites."

A few moments later Jarvis stated,

"Sir, the hacker left the system. Trace has pinpointed the location to coordinates 40.7533° N, 73.9822° W; The New York Public Library."

Tony looked at the map and abruptly turned around to say, "Jarvis ready my suit, I'm going out."

"Yes sir."


	7. Advanced Planning

Lithium sat in a dark corner of the library, her computer had just finished downloading all files that mentioned the Tesseract. She pulled the USB out of the computer and attached it to the lanyard around her neck. She destroyed the laptop as quietly as she could with her powers and slipped out the front doors of the library with the growing crowd.

She pushed her sunglasses closer to her face and huddled into the densest parts of the crowd. She thought she was in the clear when the crowd started cheering and splitting off into different directions.

Very confused she looked around to see what all the fuss was about.

_Oh Shit._ She thought.

It was Iron Man.

She quickly turned into the nearest alley to avoid attention and basically sprinted to the next street.

"He's better than I thought." She mumbled.

The cheering was roaring from the library so she assumed that Iron Man was still there. She began to briskly walk to her apartment and decided to play it as safe as she could. She did plan very thoroughly.

Once in her home she grabbed her already packed suitcase and plane tickets (purchased a month prior) and set out to find a cab. About ten minutes later, she was in a cab and she noticed a small object flying toward Stark Tower.

She had just hacked into one of the wealthiest and intelligent businessman's personal system, downloaded classified files and got away with it. She couldn't get the smirk off her face as she made her way to the airport. Not realizing that she was severely underestimating Tony Stark.

~A few hours later at Stark Tower~

"Sir, I have identified every person entering and exiting the New York Public Library within 24 hours. I have narrowed the list down to 134 likely suspects and isolated the code that slipped through my system. I also have an analysis on the samples of dust you got from the library; I could not identify what the dust was but it did contain small traces of gamma radiation." Jarvis stated.

Tony sauntered over to his hub of computer screens and shuffled through the profiles of possible suspects. "Thanks honey." Tony joked.

"Sir-"

"Tony."

Tony cocked his head around to find Pepper Potts standing in the doorway with a briefcase and an amused grin. "You have an unnatural attachment to Jarvis." She said as she made her way toward Tony.

Tony stood as she handed him the briefcase. He had a hesitant look and she comforted it with a smile.

"It's only paperwork." she said.

"I'm busy." he said as he set the briefcase to the side.

"Come on Tony, we have to be prepared if we want to get the arc reactor online tomorrow." she reminded him.

"That's tomorrow. Someone actually managed to hack past Jarvis and download files from my personal computer." he stated nonchalantly.

A flicker of horror passed by on Pepper's face and she took in what Tony just said. "Do you know who it was?" she asked.

"Honey, I'm working on it." he stated turning his attention to his computers once again.

"Are you talking to me or Jarvis?" Pepper rhetorically asked.


End file.
